I'm looking into purchasing a Band Saw Mill and was looking into the different companies out there. I figured some folks out here in cubland must own some. If the owners would be kind enough to tell me what they own and their opinions on the mill (what they like and what they don't like) as well as things I should look for a mill to have I'd appreciate it.

I did a lot of research on bandsaw mills and ended up buying a Norwood Lumbermate 2000 about 4 years ago. I love the mill and think I made the right decision. It's very well made and I believe it's the best deal for the money. Norwood has now replaced the Lumbermate 2000 with a new model, which I presume is also good but costs slightly more. The 2000 models are available used, and that may be a good cost effective way to go. My mill is all manual (no hydraulics) and unless you are doing a very large amount of sawing on big timber, I think that is fine. Simpler is often better. Norwood's customer service is also tops. Owners on the Norwood forum (http://www.norwoodsawmills.com/forum) have noting but good to say about their machines. Another forum dealing with all brands of mills, though Woodmizer seems to dominate, is http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php?PHPSESSID=ba0c3048b48d5690265c6ef1844273dc&board=7.0. Good luck and let me know if I can help further. You'll enjoy owning a mill.

My cousin John used a woodmizer in Bend Oregon to cut the trees from his property to build a gorgeous house. All the framing lumber as well as the clapboard siding. He had a lath attachment that made 8 sided posts to support the deck. With the large and long timbers he used an excavator to handle them. This also kept the bark relative clean so as to stop dirt and stone from causing excessive dulling the blade. Bev and I visited as he was nearly finished. On a hillside overlooking the Pacific it was huge and beautiful.

Bill

"Life's tough.It's even tougher if you're stupid."- John Wayne

" We hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."- Aesop

I wanted to get in to cutting my own wood about 2 years ago so i did some looking into mills and for the money I went with a Hud-Son Oscar 121. It is all manual also. I love the mill for what i use it for. I cut mostly pine, cedar, and some hardwood. I have cut chestnut & black walnut. It will cut a 20in log which is big enough for me at this time anyway, may want something bigger at a later date if i stay in it. Bad things are that it only came with 12 feet of track so i had to buy one more 6 foot piece for my needs. 18 feet of track will let me cut about 15 foot of board. The blades will last you a lot longer if you debark the log before you cut it, some of the Woodmizers have debarkers mounted on the heads that debark as they saw but that was too rich for my blood.

beaconlight wrote:My cousin John used a woodmizer in Bend Oregon to cut the trees from his property to build a gorgeous house. All the framing lumber as well as the clapboard siding. He had a lath attachment that made 8 sided posts to support the deck. With the large and long timbers he used an excavator to handle them. This also kept the bark relative clean so as to stop dirt and stone from causing excessive dulling the blade. Bev and I visited as he was nearly finished. On a hillside overlooking the Pacific it was huge and beautiful.

One of my neighbors had two trees in his back yard and got tired of picking up the nuts and those make you (bleed) shells, so he cut them down and gave them to one of his friends and the friend asked if i would cut them in to 1in boards for him.

I started into sawmilling about 6-7 years ago and the 1st sawmill I bought was a Norwood Lumbermate Mark-4. that is the mill Norwood built just before the LM2000. I used it for awhile and sold it and bought a new LM2000 in kit form. Did a lot of sawing on both mills and liked them both. They were easy to operate and made perfect lumber. I later found a good buy on the Woodmizer I have now. I wanted it mainly because it is power feed, power up and down, and has the log turner that I changed from a manual winch operated to electric winch operated. I can also use it to winch logs up a ramp onto the mill but usually use my 135 Massey to load.

I have also been wanting to saw some logs that I had been accumulating lately. So I decided to build my own mill. I had a pile of steel, a new Kohler engine that I had bought for another project that I didn't use, so I started cutting and welding. Well last Saturday I sawed my first log. Opening up a log is like opening up a box of chocolates, you never know what's inside. Needless to say I had a ball and got some pretty good looking lumber. I ran into a small technical problem with my drive belt, but a little engineering change this week and I think I'll be able to saw again tomorrow.I order 6 bands from Suffolk this morning so I've got high hopes of during some serious sawing in the near future. I'll try to get some pictures this weekend if the weather allows. Our 70 degree weather turned into frozen rain last night. Well so much for an early early garden.Roy

How do the Norwood saws tracks hold up ? My concern when looking at them was they didn't seem like they'd be very rigid and would flex under heavy logs or use ?

They hold up very well. They are more rigid than you would think from the pictures. I have the trailer kit for mine so it is mobile. Never had any problems with it at all. I built a 20 x 26 home addition and a 24 x 32 two story shop (see photos) and sawed all the framing lumber on my mill. Worked great. I highly recommend the Norwood. Remember to check your local building codes before constructing a building with home-sawed lumber. Some locations require grade-stamped lumber (i.e. store bought). Fortunately mine does not.

Chestnut oak, yes. But American Chestnut, no. There hasn't been any sawable chestnut around here since about the 50's, and that was only standing dead trees. The chestnut blight killed everything in the early 1900's. There are still American Chestnut growing here from old rootstock, but they only get to about 3-4 inches, then the disease gets them. Not big enough for sawable timber or nuts. I'm thinking that what Clint has may be Chinese Chestnut.